In this week’s news from the Eastern Churches, produced in collaboration with L’Œuvre d’Orient, Syrian children are baptized as a sign of hope amid violence, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem cancels families’ school tuition debts, and Iraq gets a new Apostolic Nuncio.
This week’s News from the Orient:
22 Baptisms at Mar Elias
Three months after an attack on the Greek Orthodox church of Mar Elias, in the Douileh neighborhood of Damascus, 22 Syrian children were baptized as a sign of hope and in honor of the martyrs.
Father Youhanna Shahada recalled that this gesture affirmed the faith of the faithful, their desire to pass on life and hope despite trials.
“We will continue to baptize our children, to instruct them and to raise them in this church and on this land,” he declared, emphasizing the community’s determination to remain rooted and alive.
Cancellation of School Debts in the Holy Land
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, announced the cancellation of school debts accumulated by families of students in Catholic schools of the Holy Land prior to the 2024–2025 school year.
The exceptional measure comes at a time when many, affected by the war in Gaza and deprived of tourism income, can no longer afford their children’s tuition.
In a letter, the Cardinal acknowledged the difficulty of such a decision, given its cost, but judged it “necessary.”
He described it as a concrete gesture of solidarity connected to the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee, which must not be limited to interior conversion, but also promote justice, fairness, and mutual support.
New Apostolic Nuncio in Iraq
Archbishop Mirosław Wachowski has been appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq by Pope Leo XIV. The 55-year-old Polish diplomat is currently Under-Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States.
Ordained a priest in 1996, he holds a background in canon law and studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 2004.
His career has taken him to Senegal, to Vienna with the IAEA, the OSCE, and the UN, as well as to Poland.
In Baghdad, he succeeds Archbishop Mitja Leskovar, appointed to Kinshasa.
